What Party (Grey)
View Similar Items
KAWSWhat Party (Grey)2020
2020
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington, DC
- Reference Number:Seller: PARTYG031stDibs: LU544310228062
KAWS
In the beginning, Brian Donnelly was just a kid from Jersey City, New Jersey, who got into the graffiti thing. KAWS was his tag, chosen simply because he liked the way it looked. Today, KAWS’s oeuvre encompasses art toys, sculptures and colorful paintings and prints that appropriate pop phenomena like the Smurfs, the Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants.
In the late 1990s, the artist, a 1996 graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, was making a living as an illustrator for the animation studio Jumbo Pictures. Like young Hansel and Gretel with their trail of crumbs, KAWS would mark the morning route to his downtown Manhattan office with “subvertising,” “interrupting” fashion advertisements by adding his colorful character Bendy, its sinuous length sliding playfully around the likes of a Calvin Klein perfume bottle or supermodel Christy Turlington.
These creations gained a following, to the point where work posted in the morning would disappear by lunchtime. Even in those early days, KAWS was hot on the resale market.
“When I was doing graffiti,” he once explained, “it meant nothing to me to make paintings if I wasn’t reaching people.” Instead of seeking entrée to the elite New York art world (which, frankly, wasn’t looking for a street artist anyway), KAWS moved to Japan, where a flourishing youth culture welcomed visionaries like him.
In 1999, he partnered with Bounty Hunter, a Japanese toy and streetwear brand, to release his first toy. Companion — an eight-inch-tall vinyl reimagining of Mickey Mouse, with a skull-and-crossbones head and trademark XX eyes — debuted with a limited run of 500. It sold out quickly.
Companion was the first of more than 130 toy designs, which came to include such characters as Chum, Blitz, Be@rbrick, BFF and Milo, each immediately recognizable as KAWS figures by their XX eyes. Fans have proved insatiable. In 2017, MoMA’s online store announced the availability of a limited supply of KAWS Companion figures; as avid collectors logged on to stake their claim, the website crashed — multiple times.
Companion is the most visible of the KAWS posse, appearing over the past decade in new postures and combinations in monumental works. These include Along the Way (2013), an 18-foot-tall wooden sculpture of two Companions leaning on each other for support; Together (2016), two Companions in a friendly embrace, which debuted during an exhibition of KAWS’s work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas; and KAWS:HOLIDAY (2018), a 92-foot-long inflatable Companion floating on its back in Seoul’s Seokchon Lake. The sculptures were re-created as toys, blurring the lines between art and commerce.
KAWS’s visual language may be drawn from cartoons, but his work doesn’t necessarily evoke childlike joy. “My figures are not always reflecting the idealistic cartoon view that I grew up on,” he explains in the catalogue for the Fort Worth exhibition. “Companion is more real in dealing with contemporary human circumstances . . . . I think when I’m making work it also often mirrors what’s going on with me at that time.”
KAWS's résumé reads like a record of major 21st-century pop-culture moments. It includes his work with streetwear brands like A Bathing Ape and Supreme; his design for the cover of Kanye West’s 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak; and his collaboration with designer Kim Jones on the Dior Homme Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Jones’s debut as the fashion brand’s creative director.
Learn how to spot a fake KAWS art toy, and browse authentic KAWS prints, sculptures and mixed media works on 1stDibs.
- Flowarh$ - II (E)By Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Title: Flowarh$ - II (E) Portfolio: Flowarh$ Medium: Silkscreen edition print on paper Date: 2021 Edition: PP 2/3 (aside from the edition of 55) Sheet Size: 24"...Category
2010s Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- Flowarh$ - II (C)By Mr. BrainwashLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Mr. Brainwash Medium: Silkscreen edition print on paper Title: Flowarh$ - II (C) Year: 2021 Signed: Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 55 Sheet Size: 24" x 24" Framed Siz...Category
2010s Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- SHAREBy KAWSLocated in Washington, DCArtist: KAWS Title: SHARE Medium: Screenprint on Stonehenge gray paper Year: 2021 Edition: 413/500 Framed Size: 22 5/8" x 18 5/8" Sheet Size: 20" x 16" Signed: Hand signed and numberedCategory
2010s Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Jasper Johns UntitledBy Jasper JohnsLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Jasper Johns Title: Untitled Medium: Screenprint in colors on Patapar printing parchment Year: 1977 Edition: 3000 Frame Size: 17" x 17" Sheet Size: 10 5/8" x 10 1/4" Image Si...Category
1970s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Marilyn Portrait (Blue)By Russell YoungLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Russell Young Medium: Hand-pulled acrylic and enamel silkscreen on paper Title: Marilyn Portrait (Blue) Signed: Signed and numbered Portfolio: Marilyn Portrait Year: 2014 Edi...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Masterpieces in Oils: VeedolBy Heiner MeyerLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Heiner Meyer Title: Veedol Portfolio: Masterpieces in Oils Medium: Multi-colored screenprint on handmade paper Year: 2016 Edition: 42/60 Frame Size: 33" x 25" Sheet Size: 27 ...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsHandmade Paper, Screen
- Pleased to Meet You AgainLocated in North Adams, MASilkscreen in 9 colors on 320 gram Coventry Rag Dimensions: 29" x 29" Signed by the Artists in pencil An edition of 75 John “CRASH” Matos and Eric Orr met for the first time as high school students. Although the exact location is unclear, both agree that it would have been at either Fashion Moda or the Writers’ Bench at 149th Street and Grand Concourse. Founded by Stefan Eins in 1978, Fashion Moda began as a “cultural concept” whose principles revolved around the fact that art can be made by anyone, anywhere and art should be accessible to anyone, anywhere. Located in the South Bronx, Fashion Moda embraced new talent and encouraged creative production across all mediums. The gallery has been credited as a major force behind the recognition of graffiti writing as an art form and it played a pivotal role in a community where Hip Hop was rapidly emerging. CRASH was only 19 years old when he curated “Graffiti Art Success for America” at Fashion Moda and his varied experiences at the gallery would later inspire his founding of WALLWORKS. The 149th Street Writers’ Bench, located at the back of the uptown...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Falling For YouBy Eric OrrLocated in North Adams, MA"Falling for You," Eric Orr, 2022 Silkscreen on 290 gram Coventry Rag paper Dimensions: 13 3/4" x 17 1/4" Signed and numbered by the Artist in pencil An editio...Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Untitled, No. 14, from The Blueprint DrawingsBy Keith HaringLocated in London, GBA screen print on arches paper. Produced in 1990. Edition of 33 + 5 Artist Proofs. This being number 27/33. Littmann P.182. Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist. This work wa...Category
1990s Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Race FaceBy D*FaceLocated in Miami, FLD*Face Race Face, 2022 Hand-signed and numbered by the artist 18 colour hand pulled screen print on 370gsm Lambeth Drawing Paper 100 x 70 cm Edition of 100 Artwork ships in 2-4 weeksCategory
2010s Street Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
$3,000 - JUXTAPOZ FACTOR LAGUNABy Shepard FaireyLocated in Tallinn, EEJUXTAPOZ FACTOR LAGUNA Screenprint in colors, 2008, signed in pencil, dated and inscribed 'AP', an artist's proof aside from the edition of 200, on w...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
Price Upon Request - La Cage Qui A Donne Sa Vie A L’humanite.By Sandra ChevrierLocated in Norwich, GBLa Cage Qui A Donne Sa Vie A L’humanite. SKY BLUE Giclée print 36 colour screen print on 300 gsm paper size: 64 x 46cm signed and numbered edition:15 edition No : 3/15 Published ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
How to Spot a Fake KAWS Figure
KAWS art toys have developed an avid audience in recent decades, and as in any robust collectible market, counterfeiters have followed the mania. Of course, you don’t have to worry about that on 1stDibs, where all our sellers are highly vetted.
KAWS Is Having a Major Effect on Popular Culture, Whether on the Street or in Museums
From graffiti tagger to hypebeast obsession to auction hero — we chart the artist’s rise and his widening influence.